Back in July, Nicolas Hojac and Adrian Zurbrügg spent 37 hours and 5 minutes crossing the Bernese panorama skyline in Switzerland in one go, becoming the first rope team ever to do so. The trip crossed 11 peaks, including the Eiger, Mönch, Jungfrau, Rottalhorn, Louwihorn, Gletscherhorn, Äbni Flue, Mittaghorn, Grosshorn, Zuckerstock and Breithorn.
They carboloaded before getting going, but survived on water, gels, gummy bears, and a few chips while on the move. Nicolas Hojac believes he burned almost 20,000 calories throughout the trip, and it took five weeks for him to reach about 90% recovered afterwards.
You can read more about the trip from Nicolas Hojac’s point of view on the Red Bull website, though it’s in German and will require translation.
“The idea had been around for a while. The line is actually obvious – when you’re out and about in the Bernese Oberland, you see this panorama and wonder if it would be possible to cross it all in one push. When we then crossed the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau in a new record time in 2022, the project became more real: We asked ourselves whether we shouldn’t be more tired at the top of the Jungfrau. We could have gone further. That’s where we set our sights on the project. Last year we had to abandon an attempt because the zero degree limit was too high and the snow couldn’t freeze overnight.” – Nicolas Hojac, translated from German